I totally agree it is situational but in the FBA server for example, the crates show up there on 65 level camps (max level on that server) that are 11 or 12 cp away so I go after them.
On other servers they are an utter waste of time. On that server though, the cp crates are useful as are the power crates. The resource crates are a waste but I would farm those camps anyway so even though I'll never use those (I have 3,125 crates on that server) there is no loss for grabbing them.